Warhammer 40000 – When Cannons Fade…

Bandai Space Marine! Games Workshop finally makes TOYS!

Many of us in the gaming world are also collectors of toys (myself included). For many years a large majority of us were scratching our heads as to why GeeDub hadn’t jumped on the action figure train. Well, as many of you know, last year saw the unveiling of a collaboration between Japanese toy giant Bandai and Games Workshop to unleash a Space Marine action figure, followed shortly thereafter by McFarlane Toys who would bring it to store shelves.

Our intrepid reporter, Matt Crump, took one for the team and wrote up a review for your reading pleasure. So get some Marmite and toast together and a cuppa and lets get started. Matt, over to you sir.

Matt’s Retrohammer: Exo-Armor Squats

Welcome everyone! Today’s post is by my good buddy Matt Crump. Matt has become somewhat of my ‘Oldhammer’ go-to guy as he loves to delve into his archives and unearth something from the vaults. Those of you who got into Games Workshop around the time of Rogue Trader will be well familiar with Matt’s offering today, and even if you’re relatively new, sit back and enjoy a look at times past…

Matt Weighs In: Bestial Devastation

This week my partner in paint is leading the charge, for which I am very grateful. I’ve just moved into a new place and it is organized chaos right now.

This weeks item on the painting table: Rogue Trader era Imperial Guard Beastman. Take it away Matt!

View from the Matt – Space Crusade Dreadnought

This week my brother-from-another-mother Matt will be leading the charge, and for that I am grateful as work has been a little hectic! In this article Matt takes a trip down memory lane to the days of yore and the era of Space Crusade and Robocop which prompted the decision for the latest model he painted for his collection. Matt, over to you squire!

A little more Bushido – Taka and Wrath.

Welcome friends! As I sit and write, I can’t quite get my head round that we are already two thirds the way through January! The last several weeks have been somewhat of a whirlwind with the holidays, family coming in from overseas and the onset of a frigid winter. While we have retired to winter quarters for the cold months, I’ve had little time for picking up a brush. I don’t know about any of you lot, but if I don’t get at least a couple hours a week at the painting table, I get cranky.

Kill Team narrative

Greetings all! A friend of mine is dipping his toe into the turbulent universe of 40K, and wanted to try out Kill Team to get a feel for it. His army of choice is Orks, and I thought this would be a good way to get things rolling with my Death Guard. So to that end, I wrote up a quick opening narrative to set the stage. Here goes:

It was a miserable day. The low-hanging purple-hued clouds were raining down, the acidic rain leaving a slightly bitter tang in the air,akin to ozone. The mud was thick and cloying, sucking at the slow, deliberate footfalls which would have sent a lesser man sprawling. Here and there the mud changed color due to gouts of ichor that had been spilled. Occasionally a hand or a torso could be spotted. The buzzing of the flies was noticeable and threatened to drown out the downpour of the acid rain.

Craters pock-marked the ground, sulphuric vapor hung heavy across the scene of carnage as though trying to veil the bloodbath that had occurred just moments before. The scene looked almost surreal, like one of the expressionist paintings that were created on Terra centuries ago. A feverish, nightmarish vision of ‘hell’.

“hell…” a voice mused.

There followed a wet, rasping noise from the vox grille, which was evidently laughter, but sounding more like a sickly gurgle from mucous thick lungs.

“It appears that the greenskins have dug in and think they can deny us what is rightfully ours. They are stubborn, but they will fall as though wheat before the scythe. We must show them the price of their misjudgment”

Vanis Bubonicus stepped up onto the crest of a rocky outcrop and surveyed the area before him. Across the mired landscape he could see the citadel which contained what they had come for: forbidden xenos technology that had been vaulted by the loyalist Mechanicum. A vanguard of Orks had intercepted their data scans and had also made planetfall in an attempt to take the artifacts for themselves. Brutish they may be, but it belied the cunning beneath, something which Vanis both admired and loathed. To underestimate the greenskins meant death.

Vanis half turned his head to his second in command, Lothar the Impure, who stood seven paces behind him.

“We press the assault brother, let us take the artifacts and lay waste to our enemies. Determined and methodical, as our gene father taught us”

“As you wish my lord” replied Lothar before turning away to relay the orders to the squad.

Vanis tilted his head slightly, as though listening to words only he could hear. The unnatural horns protruding from his helm making his visage look like that of a daemon prince. As the squad of Death Guard walked up the incline toward their leader,they saw him gesture with his hand, and with that the droning of flies became louder. Suddenly they were surrounded by obscene flying insects, a cloud of bloated thoraxes and proboscis’, a living, flying death. The nurglings that clung to Vanis’ armor squealed with delight. Another gesture from Vanis’ hand and the cloud of flies surged forward, down from their position toward the Ork lines.

Vanis turned to his squad and spoke. A voice like crushed granite addressed them.

“Onward, my brothers. Today we bring the gifts of Plaguefather Nurgle to this planet, let us make him proud of our victory. Onward my brothers, to the citadel and to our prize. Let none stand in our way. Onward, for Mortarion and for the Plaguefather!”

PanO Fusiliers and Dronbot. Pew pew!

Yes! another strike from the D20 list that I chatted about in my previous post – 3 PanOceania Fusiliers with Combi Rifles. I’ve ordered decals for the shoulder pads, but I don’t have them yet, but the paint is DONE! I’m really liking the overall feel I’m getting with these, and happy that my tabletop quality isn’t looking too bad:

Continue reading “PanO Fusiliers and Dronbot. Pew pew!”

Its official – Plastic Sisters of Battle drop in 2019!

I almost made a tit out of myself on the train ride into work this morning by (almost) shouting out “HELL YESSSS!”. I saw an email from GW with news from Adepticon that’s happening this weekend, so I took a look. Some relatively interesting stuff, but as I read on and on, I thought there maybe a chance that some Sisters news might be incoming, and in my head, I thought ‘maybe they’ve saved the best till last’.

They did not disappoint:

and here is what they said:

“Yup, plastic Sisters of Battle are on their way. For reals.

We know many of you have been waiting patiently (and impatiently…) for a long time for the Adepta Sororitas, and that for many of you this is more than ‘just’ a new army. So, we’re going to do something we’ve never done before – right up until the release, we’ll be bringing you updates on the Sisters of Battle, sharing images and snippets of info and a whole ton of behind the scenes goodness.

Emperor willing, the Battle Sisters of the Adepta Sororitas will be ready to take the fight to the renegade, the heretic and the unbeliever in 2019.”

So it looks like GW will finally get me back again in some form. Going by the recent Necromunda, Daughters of Khaine, Inquisitor Greyfax, Celestine etc etc, these new sisters plastics are going to be absolutely beautiful, and I for one, cannot wait.

Bravo, Games Workshop, bravo…

Wibbly wobbly timey wimey… stuff. 2015 already!

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope everyone had safe and happy holidays, and that everyone got plenty of minis to keep them going in 2015!

Indeed I feel as though the TARDIS has dropped me off not knowing where the hell the last 12 months have gone. Mind you, if I had a time machine, it would be irrelevant. Heck, even WordPress has changed it’s interface since I last posted… zoinks! Anyway, I digress.

I haven’t been following up too much on what’s been going on in the world of gaming. 2014 saw me drifting further away from Games Workshop releases and focusing more on historical, and tinkering with Judge Dredd miniatures. The latter did in fact reignite a passion for the 2000AD comics and I started picking up trade paperbacks etc of Mega City One’s most famous lawman. Great stuff!!!

Whenever I go into my FLGS I always drift around the GW area, probably more now out of habit than anything. Seeing that 2014 saw (yet another) release of Warhammer 40K (along with the new Space Wolves codex), I finally threw my hands up resignation. I hadn’t even had chance to test out my Wolves with 6th ed rules yet, and here we were, only 2 years later, with 7th edition. I frankly couldn’t be arsed to fork out another $75 (or however much it is now) for the rules and another $50 for the Wolves ‘dex. So I stand at this point now: I’ll play with my forces if it’s 5th or 6th edition, and won’t even entertain the idea of buying any more rule sets until my beloved Sisters get a proper codex release and accompanying figures. Get to it, GW!

This decision did help with my ability to not worry too much about getting 40K figures painted. I think I’m the only one in our group now who’s even mildly interested in it at this point anyway, so I turned my attentions elsewhere.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, me and my friend Colin decided that we wanted to venture further into the past (we’d already been playing Flames of War) and thought we’d have a go at getting some dark age armies together, with him fielding Saxons and me leading the Vikings. We’re going to be using the Hail Caesar rules from Warlord Games for this. My 300 pt Viking force comprises an army general, and 3 commanders each leading a division of 4 units of 24 men, for a grand total of 288 foot sloggers… bugger!!! Work is underway on these forces with Colin leaving me standing somewhat in a cloud of dust! anyway, here is a peek at some Viking goodness:

These have been fun paint but holy heck, I have a ton more to do! I love how they look altogether though, and the payoff and satisfaction is quicker than say painting a squad of Space Marines. I can’t wait to roll the whole army out on the table!

As mentioned, Judge Dredd has been getting some paint table time as well. This time I was focusing on his deadliest of enemies… the four Dark Judges! Dodgy scale/size issues aside (see my review on the Judge Dredd Miniatures game), I had a blast painting these little blighters. It also offered me the ‘mid army burnout’ break I needed away from my Norsemen.

Then, tinkering on my phone, I made this:

Also, other mid-army burnout distractions I painted did actually include some GW miniatures. An Adepta Sororitas Sister and a Space Wolf who I don’t even think is table legal (can anyone clarify that for me?). I mainly painted this guy up because I wanted to see how the Max Mini jet packs would look, and they look GOOD!!

Very pleased how they both turned out!

Nine days into the new year, and it looks like my year is already filling up with plenty of projects. A multi-state project will be going on between me and some friends down in Florida. We all picked the Nurgle lord mini as our paint challenge, and we’re going to follow each others progression through out the whole project, an article will be posted here at some point soon. Additionally, a multi-country project will be also taking place with my buddy Matt over in the Motherland and myself spearheading “Project Death Korps”. Again, watch this space. This is all in addition to getting my dark ages forces prepped and ready for battle as well. Some of you may think I have bitten off more than I can chew. I say BRING IT! 🙂 Never a dull moment at the WCF HQ!

On that note, I shall leave you for now, dear readers. Thank you for all your support, your emails and your comments, it really does mean a lot to this old wolf! Stay tuned for lots more to come!!!

32nd Inquisitorial Guard – I salute you!

With the advent of no inducted Imperial Guard in the new Sisters of Battle ‘Codex’ (Codex being used in the loosest sense of the term) I have decided to part ways with my IG, painted to represent the 32nd Inquisitorial Guard (I wanted to distinguish them from the ‘regular’ IG troops.

I took them to my FLGS last night and put them up for sale in their cabinet for a modest $65 (only $5 more than buying a Chimera and a box of guard). I’ll leave them there for a month, and if they don’t sell, it’ll be off to Ebay with them. Is it sad that I got a little sentimental when I walked out of the store last night? I guess when you invest time, money and passion in something, you put a bit of yourself in what you produce, but it did feel like I was saying goodbye, lol!

Hopefully someone will be able to use them and give them a good home. Here are some pics I took last night before I took them to the game store: